Innophos expands fortification portfolio with AMT Labs acquisition

Innophos Holdings has completed its acquisition of North Salt Lake-based AMT Labs for $27m, in a move it says will strengthen its position in the fortified foods market.

AMT Labs specializes in ingredients for the food, beverage, confectionery and nutraceutical industries, including mineral nutrient ingredients in various forms, such as chelates, which are thought to improve nutrient bioavailability.

Chairman and CEO of Innophos Randy Gress said in a statement: "The acquisition of AMT represents the second step in our adjacency strategy to expand in product categories closely related to our existing specialty phosphate product line.”​

Innophos said that this latest acquisition would complement its acquisition of Kelatron in November last year, a maker of bioactive mineral nutrients, which traditionally served the supplements market but has increasingly moved into fortified foods.

“AMT's strengths are highly complementary to our new bioactive mineral ingredients business platform, providing high quality manufacturing facilities better able to support the future growth expected in this product range,”​ Gress said. “AMT has also been developing new market potential for its products which we expect will bring commercial successes in addition to the expected portfolio synergies of the combined business of AMT and Kelatron, which itself has performed strongly since its acquisition by Innophos last year." ​

According to a recent report from Hartman Group, US consumers have been increasing their purchases of foods that have a ‘wellness halo’, such as fortified foods, and those that are lower in cholesterol, trans fat, saturated fat, and salt. Its research found that the average household spends $148.48 a month – or 19 percent of all monthly spending – on such products.

Innophos said that the AMT deal included unused land and buildings, which could support future expansion, and that the acquisition is expected to be accretive to its 2012 results.